Ernst Bamberg, long-term Director of the Department of Biophysical Chemistry will receive together with Ed Boyden (Boston, USA), Karl Deisseroth (Stanford, USA), Peter Hegemann (Berlin), Gero Miesenböck (Oxford, UK) and Georg Nagel (Würzburg) the renowned Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the oldest prize (1839) awarded by the Academy.